What Every Library Director Should Know

Second Edition

Susan Carol Curzon

In this unconventional management book, author Susan Carol Curzon presents a different take on traditional library management tools. Through personal narrative and anecdotes from other working professionals, Curzon presents the many everyday challenges one meets as a library manager:

• The unwritten rules, strategies, and bits of wisdom only learned on-the-job
• Behavioral nuances
• Political strategies
• Mentor-like advice
• Subtle communication codes

Regardless of the professional setting, management is management and wisdom is wisdom. What Every Library Director Should Know is the insider’s view of vital actions, behaviors, and strategies needed to succeed in every type of library.

This second edition has been significantly revised to emphasize diversity, inclusion, remote work, and virtual services.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 224 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-5381-7268-1 • Hardback • June 2023 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

978-1-5381-7269-8 • Paperback • June 2023 • $42.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-5381-7270-4 • eBook • June 2023 • $39.50 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / Administration & Management, Business & Economics / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities / Management & Leadership

What Every Library Director Should Know

Second Edition

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

In this unconventional management book, author Susan Carol Curzon presents a different take on traditional library management tools. Through personal narrative and anecdotes from other working professionals, Curzon presents the many everyday challenges one meets as a library manager:

• The unwritten rules, strategies, and bits of wisdom only learned on-the-job
• Behavioral nuances
• Political strategies
• Mentor-like advice
• Subtle communication codes

Regardless of the professional setting, management is management and wisdom is wisdom. What Every Library Director Should Know is the insider’s view of vital actions, behaviors, and strategies needed to succeed in every type of library.
This second edition has been significantly revised to emphasize diversity, inclusion, remote work, and virtual services.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 224 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-5381-7268-1 • Hardback • June 2023 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

978-1-5381-7269-8 • Paperback • June 2023 • $42.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-5381-7270-4 • eBook • June 2023 • $39.50 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / Administration & Management, Business & Economics / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities / Management & Leadership

Author

Dr. Susan Carol Curzon is the dean emeritus of the University Library of California State University, Northridge. Before becoming an academic library dean, her previous positions included director of libraries for the City of Glendale, California, and regional administrator for the County of Los Angeles Public Library. She started out in a small corporate library, then moved to public libraries, where she held various positions including reference, branch management, adult services, and children’s services. In the second half of her career, she moved to academic libraries.
Her Ph.D. is in public administration from the University of Southern California and her M.Libr. is from the University of Washington.
Awards include Library Journal’s “Librarian of the Year”, “Distinguished Alumna” from the University of California, Riverside, “Librarian of the Year” from the County of Los Angeles Public Library and “Administrator of the Year” from Associated Students, California State University, Northridge.
Library management, disaster management and information literacy have been the primary topics of her many speeches and articles. She is the author of Managing the Interview and Managing Change and the co-editor and commentator of Proven Strategies for Building an Information Literacy Program. The first edition of this book, What Every Library Director Should Know, was published in 2014.
Dr. Curzon continues to provide consulting services for libraries, for universities and for municipalities on strategic management, planning and disaster recovery.

Table of Contents

Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One: At the Helm
The Librarian-in-chief
The Master of Integration
The Proof is in the Pudding
Downstream Thinking
Conspiracy of Silence
Target Fixation
The Long-distance Runner
The Importance of Making a Good Impression
Chapter Two: Unbuckle the Library
Idea flow
How Ideas Flow
Diversity and Inclusion
Assessing the Library
A Frank Moment about Assessment
Assessment Underway
Choosing the Assessment Approach
Assessment Methods
Personnel Resources
Targets of Assessment
Timing
Using the Results of Assessment
Controlling Expectations
Chapter Three: Engaging People
People Who Like People
Stand Up Director
Not One of the Gang
The Fighter in the Ring
The Actor on the Stage
Checking Your Ego
The Power Seekers
Building the Management Team
Driving the Staff Crazy
Minding the Message
Staff Morale
Relationships in the Workplace
Union actions
The Politically Connected Staff
Hello to New Employees
Job Crafting
Working Remote
Flexible Scheduling
The Exit Interview
Saying Farewell
Chapter Four: Customer Number One: Your Boss
Living the Context
Bucking the Boss
Being Tough with Yourself
Market Yourself
Relating to the Boss’ Boss
Relating Effectively
The Booster
Bad Bosses
Chapter Five: Dealing with Governing Boards
Degrees of Control
Basic Principles
Developing an Agenda
Making the Board Look Good
Boards Under Siege
Bad Boards
Chapter Six: Dollar sense
The Breadwinner
Know the Dollars
Manage the dollars effectively
Walking the Straight and Narrow
The Boss and Money
Getting Audited
Managing Time
Employee Turnover
Chapter Seven: The Borders of the Realm
A Friend Indeed
Network vs. Clique
The Danger Zone
Tattletale
Poachers
Friends of the Library
Community Groups
Student Associations
Elected Officials
Chapter Eight: Dealing with the Media
The Double-edged Sword
Being Interviewed: Preparation
The Written Word
Being Interviewed: Responding
The Drop-in Reporter
The Reporter: Friend or Foe?
Bad News Day
Two-week Rule
Staff Involvement
Chapter Nine: A Death in the Library
Emotional Impact
The Dying Colleague
Dying in the Library
Sharing the News
Attending the Funeral
Practical Concerns
A Grateful Library
The Year After
When a Family Member of Staff Passes
Chapter Ten: Changing Times
Taking Heart
Pattern of Decision-Making
World of Gray
Outside Forces of Change
Change Fatigue
Handling a Setback
The Price of Not Changing
Problems without Solutions
Project Management
Chapter Eleven: Transitions
Starting the New Job
The Secretary to the Director
Promoted from Within
Accidental Director
Job Shock
The End of the Line: Fired
The End of the Line: Resigned
The End of the Line: Retired
Traveling Light
Chapter Twelve: Do You Want to be a Director?
Essential Questions
A Final Word
About the Author

Reviews

Curzon presents an update of the first edition of this title (2014), noting that much has changed in the field of librarianship during the intervening decade—for example, matters related to censorship, social media, and the global pandemic. Like its predecessor, this second edition is intended for practitioners in all fields of librarianship. Curzon draws on her background and experiences, and she notes the importance of understanding “unwritten rules, unwritten strategies, and unwritten wisdom of management” (p. 175). Chapters, which are designed to stand alone, address such issues as dealing with the media, engaging staff, and interacting with boards. A new chapter is directed to those considering serving as a library director. [Curzon] is one of the few to deal with the difficult issues surrounding death in the library, an emotional but worthwhile topic. Curzon's writing style is accessible and conversational, and she includes sidebar quotes from experienced library directors. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals.

— Choice Reviews

Curzon has decades of experience working in academic and public libraries. In this second edition of her 2014 book, she offers a new chapter discussing assessment, idea flow, and diversity and inclusion.… It addresses many practical day-to-day topics not covered in library-management textbooks, such as what to do when surprised by a reporter in the stacks or how to handle a coworker’s death. Librarians considering moving into a director position will appreciate the last chapter (“Do You Want To Be a Director?”) and the various quotes from successful librarians scattered throughout. Unique supplemental reading for aspiring library directors or those interested in an insider’s view of successful library management.

— Library Journal

We always want an inside track on positions, especially those that come with great responsibility and influence over organizational health and political savvy. Dr. Susan Carol Curzon's What Every Library Director Should Know exceeds in that desire, by providing an in depth perspective on topics of humanistic responses to situations, activities and position accountability that comes with a leadership title.

— Michael A. Crumpton, professor and dean of the University Libraries, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Susan Curzon has written an eminently accessible and highly practical book on library leadership, based on many years of experience in different types of libraries. Read this book slowly -- and then read it again – because there are lots of nuggets of wisdom here.

— Mark Stover, Ph.D., dean, University Library, California State University, Northridge

Sue Curzon's updated and still indispensable guide for library directors successfully brings her sage advice in the first edition into the world of social media and digital resources. In her distinctive conversational style Dr. Curzon leads directors at all career stages and in any library through the thicket of issues we all confront at some point. Anyone leading a library in needs this book close at hand.

— Emily Miller Bonney, PhD, Dean Pollak Library, professor of liberal studies, California State University Fullerton

Luckily for us, Susan has taken the unwritten rules, strategies and wisdom managers must know and written them down. The real power of the book as a must-read for the new, newer or more seasoned top level or middle level manager; however, is the way one might use the text as either a narrative checklist to decide if management is for them at all, or as a process to determining what is working and what isn't working about their position. Not to be missed is Chapter 12 "Do you want to be a director?" which I think should be read and integrated into not only ones internal decision making but interviews for any new or "next" management position.

— Julie Beth Todaro, PhD, dean of Library Services and 2016–2017 president of the American Library Association

First published in 2014, the 2023 second edition of What Every Library Director Should Know remains a work not intended to serve as a management text but more as a source of shared observations and experiences. Targeted at both aspiring directors as well as sitting directors, this very readable text will be useful regardless of whether you lead a public or academic library... Overall I find What Every Library Director Should Know to be a valuable resource that both current and prospective library leaders will find beneficial. And as the library workplace continues to evolve over the next few years, a third edition more fully addressing the emerging impact of the pandemic on libraries would be a welcome addition to the professional literature.

— Technical Services Quarterly